Dive Brief: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Wednesday released a Next Generation Manufactured Housing Action Plan to update development standards for the affordable housing.
In compliance with the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, the agency’s action plan outlines HUD Code regulatory updates concerning efficiency standards, construction, installation and more.
The new law’s removal of a permanent chassis requirement for manufactured homes is “particularly significant” for the future of factory-built housing and offers more flexibility, according to HUD.
Production of manufactured housing — a lower-cost housing option — has dwindled from its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s.
In compliance with ROAD, HUD’s seven-step action plan updates manufactured housing efficiency standards; revises standards and technical regulations for manufactured homes built without a permanent chassis; addresses installation requirements for chassis-free manufactured housing; and calls for studying manufactured housing without a permanent chassis to better understand “how off-chassis manufactured housing works in practice.”